President Donald Trump's former press secretary will be competing for the mirrorball trophy this season.
The Dancing With the Stars contestants for season 28 have been announced, but Tom Bergeron didn't sign off on all of them.
Following the big reveal on Good Morning America, the DWTS host tweeted that he disagreed with the decision to include those involved in politics on this season, though Sean Spicer, the former press secretary for President Donald Trump, will be competing for the coveted mirrorball trophy.
"A few months ago, during a lunch with DWTS' new executive producer, I offered suggestions for season 28. Chief among them was my hope that DWTS, in its return from an unprecedented year-long hiatus, would be a joyful respite from our exhausting political climate and free of inevitably divisive bookings from any party affiliation," Bergeron begins. "I left that lunch convinced we were in agreement."
Referring to Spicer joining the cast, Bergeron adds, "Subsequently (and rather obviously), a decision was made to, as we often say in Hollywood, 'go a different direction.'"
While the 64-year-old TV personality isn't in support of having a political figure on DWTS, he concedes, "We can all agree to disagree. As we do now, but ultimately it's their call. I'll leave it to them to answer any further questions about those decisions."
While on GMA, Bergeron made a little dig at Spicer. "The nice thing is, Sean will be in charge of assessing audience size," Bergeron quipped, referencing the controversy over the crowd size at the 2017 inauguration of Trump.
Bergeron shared more during an interview with SiriusXM's Dalton Ross. "My preference... would have been to avoid any political lightning rods. I think Dancing at its best is an oasis away from all the divisiveness and all the stuff we're all wrestling with right now," he said. "My job as host, to the best of my ability is to be Switzerland for those two hours a week. For the other 166 hours a week, I'm pretty clear where I stand politically."
Soon after, in response to Spicer's casting, #BoycottDWTS started trending in the U.S. on Twitter. In a statement to ET about Bergeron's comments, Andrew Llinares, executive producer of DWTS said, "We've got a great and diverse cast. We are excited about the season."
ET spoke with Spicer after the big announcement on GMA, and he seemed excited to show a "different side" of himself.
"Most people probably saw one side, which is [me] just standing at a podium tussling with members of the media," the 47-year-old political aide said. "Now it's an opportunity to see a different side that wasn't shown at that point."
Spicer added that he's in it to win it! "We're going full campaign -- email, social," he declared. "Then we're taking them out one at a time. You know, full TV."
Bergeron also spoke to ET about the changes on DWTS this season. "We have a lot of new people behind the scenes, new executive producer, and so there was a feeling, fairly a widespread feeling, among our viewers and among us on the show that we needed to take a look at things and tweak things a little bit," he shared. "And you'll see the result of those deliberations on Sept. 16."
Dancing With the Stars returns for its all-new season Monday, Sept. 16 at 8 p.m ET/PT on ABC.
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